NASCAR Teams Exploring Sponsorships With Smaller Companies
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Hunt Brothers Pizza Among Sponsors
Taking Non-Traditional Approaches |
NASCAR teams are starting to look at smaller companies for sponsorship support, "knowing that the larger companies have either left the sport entirely or can no longer afford to write multi-million dollar checks to cover a team's entire season," according to Raygan Swan of NASCAR.com. Teams and companies are "learning to reinvent the sponsorship sale so that both sides are happy," as value for the sponsor "can have several different meanings in today's NASCAR." Hunt Brothers Pizza will sponsor Richard Petty Motorsports' No. 44 Sprint Cup Series Dodge driven by A.J. Allmendinger for six races this season, as well as the All-Star Race, and Hunt Brothers CEO Scott Hunt said, "If the pricing was what it was three or four years ago, we couldn't have done it. It's made everyone a little more humble." Hunt Brothers and Allmendinger "have used low-budget grassroots activation methods" to market the brand. Hunt: "We've been cooking pizzas inside the garage area and feeding the teams. A.J. has handed out free T-shirts and our brand recognition has increased." Swan reported Sun-Drop is "making a return to the sport in nostalgic fashion this summer," as it will be the primary sponsor of the JD Motorsports No. 01 Chevy driven by Danny O'Quinn during the May 23 Nationwide Series Carquest Auto Parts 300, as well as associate sponsor for three other Nationwide races. Sun-Drop previously was "one of the first major beverage sponsors in the sport" as an associate sponsor of late driver Dale Earnhardt's No. 3 car. Meanwhile, Tennessee-based State Water Heaters, rather than "sponsoring a low-level team with a car that gets little television exposure," has decided to employ driver Ward Burton "as the company's race day representative to entertain the company's guests and most important customers" (NASCAR.com, 5/6).
HELUVA GOOD TIME: New York-based snack brand Heluva Good will title sponsor the August 9 Sprint Cup Series Heluva Good Sour Cream Dips at The Glen, and Watkins Glen Int'l (WGI) President Craig Rust said of the name, "It's a mouthful and I've already gotten the joke." He added, "That's OK as long as the partner gets in there and finds value in it. It's good to have fun with it, too." Rust noted that reserved camping for the weekend of the race is "sold out" and track rent also is "booked for the season." Meanwhile, WGI "has teamed with McDonald's to lower ticket prices in the McDonald's Family Grandstand for NASCAR weekend" (AP, 5/6).
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